ORLANDO, Fla. — In 2020, U.S. Rep. Val Demings took some heat from progressives and police reform advocates when her name was floated as Joe Biden’s running mate, largely over her record as Orlando police chief.
A year later, some of that skepticism remains about the Orlando Democrat. But now, her campaign to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio next year and an increased focus on health care and economic issues have most progressive groups generally positive about her.
“This is really not about her being a police officer,” said Sheena Rolle, senior director of strategy for the organization Florida Rising. “I’m really interested in what she’s committing to and what she’s delivering on for the people that live in her district.”
Amid the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Demings’ record as Orlando police chief from 2007 to 2011 was a strong point in her bid to join the Democratic ticket. Demings framed herself as a police reformer who reached out to minority communities and whose law enforcement experience could be a benefit for Democrats.
“What happened to George Floyd should not have happened under any circumstances,” Demings said in June 2020, calling for a ban on all neck restraints and changes to hiring and training standards, use-of-force policies, and de-escalation training.
Demings cited how violent crime in Orlando had fallen by 40% at the end of her tenure as chief in 2011.
“Everybody in Orlando who was watching saw me be very effective on violent crime offenders but also realize we cannot arrest our way out of our problems,” Demings said in June 2020.
Demings and her campaign declined to comment for this story.
But progressive activists were wary of Demings in part due to allegations of excessive force during her tenure.
An Orlando Sentinel investigation found that between 2010 and 2014, which included the final 17 months of her tenure, Orlando officers used force in 5.6% of arrests, more than double the rate of some other agencies in the state. OPD officers also disproportionately used force on black suspects.
Most of the 2020 BLM protests called for changes to use-of-force policies, reduced police budgets and using mental health experts instead of officers to respond to calls involving the mentally ill.
In February, Orlando formed a Community Response Team, separate from OPD but with their support and training, made up of mental health experts and case managers to respond to certain 911 calls. As of May, the team has not had any calls that ended in arrest. The OPD also hired consultants at The Bowman Group to analyze protocols and practices.
While Orlando and other major cities have changed some policies, much of the calls for reform have been caught up in a backlash stemming from a jump in the nationwide homicide rate in 2020, even as the overall major crime rate dropped. Republicans also used some of the most extreme activists’ calls to “defund the police” against Democratic officeholders, despite Democrats themselves distancing themselves from that slogan.
Lawanna Gelzer, president of the Central Florida chapter of the civil rights group National Action Network, has been one of Demings’ biggest critics. A year after the George Floyd protests, Gelzer said, “nothing’s changed. She’s had no outreach with us. There have been no [major] policy changes. We still have a young man, Salaythis Melvin, that was shot in the back [by an Orange County deputy] and there have been no charges. I mean, this is nothing.”
A deputy not in full uniform shot and killed Melvin, 22, as he ran away from him while armed in the parking lot of the Florida Mall on Aug. 7, 2020.
Gelzer called the city’s hiring of consultants, as well as Val Demings’ husband, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, allocating $2 million in county funds toward gun and gang violence prevention and solutions, as “nothing but PR.”
Other progressive groups, however, had positive things to say about Demings.
Rolle said that as a member of several progressive groups over the past few years, “I’ve seen Demings really lean in and work with us. … Her staff has been very open and willing to talk through things and talk about real policy.”
There was “some unfortunate timing” around Demings being on Biden’s shortlist amid a national debate over police violence, Rolle said.
“Lots of folks, including myself, would love to hear some of her thoughts on police accountability. But I also know that for the members of Florida Rising, the same people who experience very horrible things [with the] police, also suffer under severe economic injustice,” Rolle said. “So when we talk about federal policy, I’m really thinking about what else she could be doing when it comes to like [Biden’s] Build Back Better plan and reconciliation.”
Demings has expressed full support for the Build Back Better plan. It includes climate change legislation, as well as potentially allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, expanding child tax credits and some form of paid family medical leave.
Denise Diaz of the group Central Florida Jobs with Justice echoed that the progressive focus is around economic recovery.
“We’ve been working heavily on advocating for a just recovery, specifically looking at the infrastructure and the Build Back Better legislation, which she’s been supporting. … We’re really clear on what we’re going for, and it’s like a choice for her and whether or not she wants to be a part of that," she said.
As to the criticism about her police record, “there’s a real clarity amongst progressives that, regardless of who is in office, police brutality is systemic and it’s going to take more than one senator to actually change that," Diaz said.
While police reform advocates remained tepid about Demings, Rubio campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Gregory framed her calling for even some reforms as a liability.
“When Val Demings stepped foot in Washington, she decided it was more politically beneficial for her to kiss up to liberal donors than to support her former colleagues in law enforcement,” Gregory said. “Her anti-police record tells you all you need to know about how she’s changed.”
For Coy Jones, of the health care workers union SEIU 1199, the election was all about Rubio.
“Before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and even now, we have not seen any kind of support, not even an answer of an email or a phone call from Sen. Rubio or his office,” Jones said. “... He didn’t answer our calls when our members were really in need. And it was folks like Val Demings that did answer our call.”
Demings faces an uphill battle against the incumbent Rubio in a state that is increasingly trending Republican, but there are signs the race can be competitive. Demings pulled in a huge $8.4 million fundraising haul in the third quarter, topping Rubio’s $6 million raised.
“When they’re living their day to day lives, life is too difficult for folks to be kind of caught up in highbrow political analysis,” Rolle said. “We need people who will show up in leadership to produce for folks in real tangible ways. So yeah, I think I think she’s doing that.”
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